Sesame Street Bloopers/Technical Difficulties

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I noticed that when it was on Noggin, but remember, that might simply be from Noggin's copy.

Actually, I remember Grover's telephone skit with that uneven movement when it was shown years ago in the 70's. At the time, I thought there might just be technical difficulty, but after seeing it like that a few times then and years later on Noggin, I tend to think there was a problem with the original filming of it. Of course, whether a better copy of it exists somewhere out there, I couldn't say for sure.

 

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Here's another one:

In the skit where Lefty the Salesman sells Ernie the painting with four elephants, there is a blooper. In the beginning of the skit, Lefty has ears, but after the four elephants appear, the next scene shows Lefty with no ears! Someone must have gotten really confused making this one since I don't think Lefty the Salesman ever had ears at all in any other skits.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

That also happened in at least one of this season's Journey to Ernie segments.

I think the main reason the sleeves exist is because Sesame is shot on such a fast schedule if they a little bit of a puppeteer's harm ends up in an otherwise perfect take the mistake won't be so glaring.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

There are many times in JTE when Ernie forgets to match up with the song. He misses "yoohoo" a few times and sometimes forgets to squeak the ducky. Why do't they do another take when this happens?

As I mentioned above, I think the main reason this happens is because the show is shot on a painfully short schedule. They really crank these Muppet segments out. Another explanation is that sometimes there might be another take that is technically better, but a decision could be made in editing that the take used in the show is better overall.

I posted this in the "Follow That Bird Revisited" thread, but I noticed on the DVD the theatrical trailer includes a brief shot of Cookie Monster stealing a cookie and the puppeteer's black arm is right out in the open. They also forgot to dub the voice of Grover in a shot of him watching TV with Bob. The puppeteer who did Grover in that shot obviously wasn't Frank Oz. Both mistakes were corrected in the finished film.

 

[Drtooth]

I guess what's really great is when something happens, and there's a technical difficulty, the Muppeteers will improvise something.

Take for instance X-mas on SS... At one point Ernie's trying to open Bert's present. Jim (and whoever was working the other hand) had a tough time trying to open it, to which Frank Oz adlib'ed Bert's line "Wrapped it good, didn't I?"

I guess that's what happened with "Honk Around the Clock" as well.

I can note several times where large crumbs are visable on tables after Cookie Monster feasts, and Frank will add "Come here you" or something to that extent. One time a huge Crumb was visable in his mouth, Frank promptly puts cookie's finger into the mouth and pops it out adlibbing "Need toothpick..."

Another such example falls into Count it Higher (which I posted numerous times before). The three AM's singing was out of continuity, so at some points one mouths the singing while the other is supposed to. At one point, two open there mouths at the same time, though only one person is singing. However, the Puppeteer (Mayhaps Jerry nelson) of the Smaller AM, improvises a bit where the littler one looks in shock as the other sings his line. On the second time around counting to 10, the smaller AM looks at the one who previosuly stepped on his line in anticipation of his singing...

 

[Roosevelt]

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Was there a technical blooper in that message?

 

[Ryan]

Here's a few:

In the 1971 Dragnet parody (with W as the wanted letter) You can see Jerry's head under the purple AM when he's chasing the W at the end of the sketch, as the shot gets wider and wider.

In the Butterfly Sesame paegant, Herry Monster is suspended by a rope to fly like a butterfly (complete with wings) and as the rope rises, we see that the Herry puppet they used has no legs

In the "Do Wop Hop" number, Kermit is thrown around at the end, giving the illusion that he is hopping. In a few shots, you can see the hole in the bottom of him which operates him. (This is in the unedited version. It must have been edited down for this reason)

In the "A You're Adorable" number, we see Frank's head behind Cookie during the end when he's grabbing the blocks. Also, at times, as the AM man sings, the blocks do not come in at the right time.

 

[D'Snowth]

Here's one I noticed, in the last episode of season 34, Papa Bear was singing about how he loves both Baby Bear and Curly Bear. In his thought bubble where Baby Bear is making his bed, you can see David Rudman's head trying to hide behind Baby Bear's left hand. Another, in "The Fox, Box, Locks, Rocks, Socks, Ox" skit, Grover's fingers weren't wiggly.

 

[Ryan]

In "There's Nothing We Women Can't Be" the liontamer sings "And that's why I'm here in this ring!!" when in fact, she's in no ring at all. Also, the puppetry is very bad on that one. Looks like it was possibly a first take?